UAW Still Bargaining With GM

Negotiations between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers stretched into Tuesday morning as the world's largest automaker tried to hammer out a new labor agreement.

General Motors is the only Big Three automaker without a tentative contract after Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG announced deals following their own marathon negotiating sessions.

The union has said GM employees will report to work as usual while talks continue. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said negotiators with GM would "stay at the bargaining table until a tentative agreement is hammered out."

The deal with Ford announced late Monday also covers parts supplier Visteon Corp., which spun off from Ford in 2000 and negotiated along with the world's second-largest automaker.

The union and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group announced early Monday a tentative, four-year contract. Details of the Chrysler and Ford deals weren't released; both will require ratification by members, as will a GM deal.

"It was a long set of negotiations, but well worth it, and I'm very proud of our entire team," said Bill Ford Jr., chairman and chief executive of Ford. "They did a wonderful job."

Bill Ford, without being specific, said terms of the four-year contract will have no adverse effect on the company's ongoing turnaround bid, which includes closing several plants and improving profits by $9 billion by mid-decade.

"We feel very good about where we are today," he said.

The Big Three and UAW began talks on new labor pacts in mid-July, but GM and Ford were unable to reach resolutions before contracts expired as Sunday's midnight deadline passed. The UAW, Ford and Visteon agreed to a three-day extension so they could continue negotiating.

Gettelfinger said the Chrysler pact covers wages and benefits for 63,000 active workers and another 66,000 retirees and surviving spouses. The Ford pact covers about 93,000 active workers and 105,000 retirees and their spouses.

The UAW and Big Three, along with suppliers Delphi Corp. and Visteon, have been negotiating issues including wages, jobs, health care and pensions.

Some analysts and labor experts have said the new pacts likely will reflect the automakers' financial difficulties and that compromise in areas such as wage and pension increases are likely.

Gettelfinger has insisted the union would not retreat on health care benefits, so some analysts said negotiators likely would reach agreements giving automakers more flexibility in plant closings in exchange for continued low-cost medical coverage.

The current contracts were negotiated in 1999 during the term of Gettelfinger's predecessor, Stephen Yokich, who died shortly after he retired last year. Those pacts included 3 percent annual pay hikes, a ban on plant closings and nearly cost-free health care.

By John Porretto